Life seems to have settled down a bit. My mother in law is still terribly sick and not likely to last out the year but at least she’s back home. We had a big family lunch on Saturday over at their place where I cooked a lamb roast for the family. There was me, Kirsty, her parents and her sister Fiona, and her husband Nigel. It was a yummy lunch and Kirsty’s mum really liked it though she was pretty exhausted yesterday. Fiona and Nigel fly back to Dubai today so at least if Ks mum does slip away she had one last family meal/get together.

The writing has settled down into a nice rhythm as well. I’ve been working away on decompressing one of my previous draft’s chapters into three separate ones. So far it seems to be working really well and makes this section of the novel really exciting. Or so I reckon at least 😉 I’ve also been thinking of crunching the novel down to a much shorter length. As I mentioned earlier the previous draft was 260,000 odd words which is way too much, especially if I want a publisher to take it seriously. I’m starting to figure out a way of working it so it’s much shorter. I still haven’t decided to do the change but its definitely worth considering.

It’s a bleak time in my household at the moment. My mother-in-law is very close to passing on and we are just waiting for it to happen. Obviously it’s pretty terrible at the moment. Kirsty is not home most nights until around 9 as she’s working and then spending the rest of the time at the hospital. So yeah, not good at the moment. We’re going to see the Killers tonight at Vector Arena so hopefully that’ll give us a break. It’s Ks birthday present so I hope she can enjoy it.

So it’s 2009 now. Feels much like 2008. Especially when you consider the goals remain the same:

get the novel finished and sent out to publishers (it has been the goal for the last 3 years),

find happiness at home (becoming increasingly important as I grow older),

try to be a better person (believe it or not I can be a bastard).

Let’s see how that pans out, eh?

Anyway, what’s been up with me?

I had two weeks off work. I spent most of it playing Fallout 3. Kirsty and I did have grandiose plans but they kinda got scuttled when her mother was rushed to hospital on the 28th. Her mum’s a type 2 diabetic who never really looked after herself. As a result she has had both legs removed and is virtually blind. She’s been in and out of hospitals and respite for the past few years. Most of the time she’s at home being cared for by Doug. Doug’s a wonderful man but he’s been forced to retire and is her fulltime caregiver. It’s a tragic situation and extremely stressful on all involved.

On the 28th Doug couldn’t rouse Maureen. Fearing she had fallen into a coma he called an ambulance and she was rushed to hospital. When they got to the hospital they administered an anti narcotics drug that seemed to bring her around. As a result they thought she had an overdose. Initially they thought it was suicide then when they realised she had no access to the drugs the ER doctor reckoned Doug had tried to euthanize her. By this time Kirsty was there and she was so mad. Then they realised that they were wrong with their diagnosis – she had come around in the ambulance already but they didn’t apologise. Oh no. Apparently “sorry” is a word idiot ER doctors don’t know. I find that behaviour shocking. Doug just dealt with it as something life throws at you.

Eventually, after another four consults with more experienced doctors, they figured out she had a sodium deficiency. It took them another few days to get it right and she came home on New Year’s Eve.

Of course all this drama meant we never got around to the stuff we wanted to do as a couple like go to the zoo, or the museum, or even a frikkin movie. In a silver lining kind of thing, it did mean I was able to enjoy my brand new precious …

My precious...

Isn’t she pretty? Fallout 3 looks awesome on it and we’ve been celebrating our new arrival by rewatching the extended editions of Lord of the Rings. So. Bloody. Good. Can’t wait for TheHobbit!

Well we survived the wedding. It was a hell of a day though. The ceremony was very traditional and conducted by a doddering old woman who hardly could change the pages of her notes. There’s footage of me and Nigel (the groom) exchanging wide eyed glances at one point. It was weird in a way. Neither Fiona or Nigel are Christian yet they had their wedding in a Presbyterian church.

After the ceremony we went and got photos at the top of One Tree Hill (no not the series the mountain). Which was cool and all EXCEPT for it being the middle of winter and the wind blowing a gale. Both Kirsty and Fiona almost froze to death but the photos are going to turn out amazing. Then we had to change limos as our old fashioned Daimler almost broke down. It backfired its way down the mountain past tourists. We had a few final photos at the museum before heading to the reception.

By this time I was feeling quite grotty as my flu had crept up again but I soldiered on and managed to deliver my speech. It got some laughs and seemed to go down well but as happened at my wedding, Doug, Fiona and Kirsty’s dad, stole the show with his brilliant dissection of Nigel which had everyone thumping the tables. I think Doug should have been a standup comedian.

I got my second wind during the dances and I ended up dancing for about 3 hours until K brought me home where I crashed for hours.

When I woke up I found NZ had kicked arse in the Olympics, the Warriors had won the league and the All Blacks had thumped the Boks. Awesome.